March 13th, Ba Sing Se

Now, at almost two months pregnant, Katara was finding the special treatment quite annoying. Don't get her wrong, she appreciated the love and support she was getting from her friends, especially from Sokka and Aang. But she was getting sick of it.

She wasn't allowed to carry her bags anymore, because they were too heavy, according to the boys. Sokka would call her every day, and lecture her for hours on how important it was to take vitamins regularly. Suki would send her several pictures of baby bedrooms. Toph was being especially nice to her, and stopped punching her in the arm, as she used to do to 'show affection'. Aang would tell her the entire content of some of his pregnancy books. Her friends had stolen every single alcoholic beverage from her house, even though she was aware she couldn't drink it, just to be sure she wouldn't.

Katara really appreciated it and found it quite cute that they cared so much, but it was driving her mad.

Every time someone mentioned the baby, she got irrationally disturbed. If she was being honest, she just wanted to forget about it for a moment. She still had seven months, and she was totally fine with procrastinating her motherly responsibilities for a couple more weeks. But everyone just seemed to remind her of her pregnancy constantly.

She just needed a minute of peace.

And that was her original plan for that Saturday: Eating ice cream and doing a TV show marathon, all by herself.

Until she heard her phone ring, of course. She paused the episode and sighed as she accepted the call. Her brother started bombarding her with questions from the other side of the line.

"How are you doing? Having morning sickness? Have you been drinking enough water, Katara?" Sokka said, in a concerned voice. There it was, she thought, The daily reminder of the pregnancy.

"Well, hello to you too, Sokka." She said, with a salty voice.

"Hey. Answer me, are you okay?" He said.

"Yeah, I'm fine."

"Oh, Suki just asked if you saw her Pinterest board with Montessorian baby bedrooms. Isn't it cute?" Sokka said, doing a high-pitched voice at the end.

"Yes. Very cute. But is there anything else you would like to say? I'm kind of in the middle of an episode of Ruins Of Omashu."

"What's that? Sounds boring." He said with a groan.

"It's not boring! It's a good TV show. It's basically just a bunch of historians saying that the city was built by Aliens. It's very funny. They are super crazy." She scoffed.

"Hm... Not for me then. But, yes, there is something else. Suki just found out that there is an antique shopping fair in the Middle Ring Park, and she is wondering if you would like to come with us." There was a distinguished noise in the background. His wife screamed something at him, so he completed it. "Okay, okay. She's wondering if you and... And Aang would like to come."

Ever since the day Sokka found out she was pregnant, he had shown immense dislike of Aang. It didn't help, of course, that Sokka's leg was still sore from the Appa's bite. He had to wear crutches for two weeks or so. The two men managed to avoid any kind of contact with each other for the entire month until Suki started pressuring her husband to make amends. After all, Aang was going to be the father of their nephew or niece. They needed to get along for the sake of the baby.

"Oh... I was actually planning on staying at home today." She answered, sinking further into her bed.

"Please, Katara. I have never asked you for anything..." He whispered on the phone so that his wife couldn't hear.

"Yes, you have." She interrupted him, but he just continued.

"... She's going to invite Aang anyway, even if you don't come, and I don't think I can keep myself from breaking his nose again. Please, I need you to keep me in line." Sokka said very quietly.

"Ugh... Fine." She rolled her eyes.

"Yes! I love you! Toph's coming too. I'm glad! It will be too boring for me to take it alone. Seriously, who goes antique shopping? Gran-Gran?" He mocked and suddenly yelped, and Katara heard a loud thud from the phone. "Ouch, Suki hit me with a pillow. We can give you a ride. We'll pick you up in half an hour. Got to go, bye."

He hung up the phone and Katara groaned. She only had half an hour to get ready, but she didn't feel like leaving her bed. She texted Aang, inviting him to the fair, and made her way to the shower, crawling out of her bed with displeasure.

Sokka, Suki, and Katara made their way to the Middle Ring Park and walked through the crowd to get to the antique sales.

It was a beautiful afternoon. Many children were playing in the slides and swings, screaming and laughing. A man played the tsungi horn under a tree, and the people passing by put coins inside his hat, laying on the floor. A crowd gathered around him too, listening and enjoying the day.

As they got closer to the sales spot, Katara saw Aang and Toph, sitting on a bench.

"Hey, guys!" Suki said, greeting them.

"Hi!" Toph replied. She punched Sokka and Suki in the arm, and was about to punch Katara, but then stopped herself.

"Aang." Her brother greeted him, with a serious face. "I hope your nose is healing well."

As it turned out, a broken nose only took about three weeks to heal. It had swollen a lot in the first days, and dark bags under his eyes had appeared. His students at the High School had been terrified of it, and many rumors about him started spreading around campus. They speculated Aang had been involved in a gang fight or had been kidnapped by the Dai Li.

"Thank you. It's almost as good as new. I just can't do some specific activities for another month, like kart-racing." He responded, in a more friendly tone.

Sokka raised his brows.

"Do you usually go kart-racing? That's very dangerous. You could die. If you die, you would leave my sister alone with your child. If you leave my sister alone I will have no choice but to hunt you down in the afterlife." He had a maniacal expression now, which made Katara roll her eyes. "You wouldn't like that, would you?"

"Don't worry, Sokka. I don't like kart-racing anyway." Aang replied, with a bit of a grin on his face. He actually found Sokka terrifying when he was threatening him, but it was funny to pretend to be aloof. It drove the Water Tribe man mad.

Katara took Aang's arm and kissed him on the cheek to greet him. Sokka gagged, but she ignored him.

"Oogie."

The five of them walked through the fair, but quickly got separated, each making their way looking at the different products. Near a gazebo, there were many people gathered around an old chair, bidding on it. The prices were high, but the salesperson claimed it had belonged to the Earth King's private study. Suki rushed to the crowd, hoping the chair would match the newly bought table Sokka was struggling to carry around.

Toph had been immersed in the jewelry stand, next to where Katara was. She loved studying about rocks and precious stones, so she was having the time of her life arguing with the salesperson, yelling that those weren't real amethysts.

Katara stood by, laughing at Toph's outburst, looking at a candlestick stand. She scattered through a box and found one particularly amusing.

It was made out of pure silver and had pointy pieces on the sides, similar to the petals of a flower. They were sharp, and she almost hurt herself. She weighed it in her hands, looking at the tiny details in the base. It matched her living room, so she was about to buy it when she heard someone behind her. She jumped in surprise.

"Careful, I'm not sure that's baby proof." Aang said, hugging her from the behind.

She sighed, being once again reminded of the baby. She couldn't get just a couple more days of peace, could she?

"Well, the baby is not coming for another seven months. And I think I can handle a pointy candlestick, which is, by the way, fifty percent off." Katara turned to look at his face, pouting.

"Alright, alright. Buy the candlestick then." He kissed her forehead. She kept the frown on her face, much to Aang's confusion. She approached the saleswoman that was responsible for the candlesticks and asked how much it cost.

"Oh, great choice! This piece came from the Northern Air Temple, and it belonged to the famous Guru Laghima. It would be only sixty yuans." The woman glanced at Katara with a wide smile.

Aang looked at it with a raised eyebrow, but then smiled and spoke, in a sarcastic tone.

"Wow! Guru Laghima? Gyatso used to tell me about his tales when I was little. I thought it was only a legend." Aang shot the woman a challenging look, realizing she was trying to pull a scam. The woman's face was suddenly very pale, and her eyes widened.

"Nope, he existed. And that's his candlestick." She tried shrugging it off, but Aang had tricked her already.

"Miss, Guru Laghima didn't exist, and if he did, it was a long time before these kinds of candlesticks were produced. Would you consider a lower price?" He then whispered to Katara. "Years of teaching history are finally paying off."

"Fine. Ten yuans. That's my final price." She blushed in embarrassment.

Katara paid the woman and took the candlestick, putting it in a shopping bag, that was quickly taken out of her hands by Aang.

"Let me carry this for you. It's heavy, and you shouldn't be carrying so much weight, Sweetie." Katara huffed in annoyance but, as he didn't notice it, he continued talking. Katara usually loved hearing him talk about history, for it was something he was so passionate about that it was adorable to see his excitement. "You know, according to the legend, Guru Laghima was so enlightened that he let go of all his earthly attachments and managed to fly."

"That's cool." She said, with a scowl.

"Laghima is a very meaningful name for the Air Nomads, you know. And a beautiful one too." He continued, eyeing Katara, suggestively. "What do you think about it?"

"Uh... It's alright, I guess." She replied.

"Isn't it a good name for our baby?" He added, with a grin.

She couldn't take it anymore. Katara stopped walking and took a long breath.

"Why does everything now has to be about the baby?" She said, shooting him an angry look.

"What do you mean? You're pregnant." Aang said, confused.

"Tell me, why? I am sick of only hearing about it. Why does everyone have to keep reminding me of it every single second that I'm pregnant? It's not like I can't remember it on my own. I puke my guts out every day! That's a pretty good reminder." She started screaming.

"You're pregnant. It's a major change in our lives. It's only natural that we talk about it." He tried arguing. She wasn't making any sense to him. "Is this about the whole protectiveness thing? We just want you to be safe, that's it."

"B-But... I-I..." She tried to explain it, but a bunch of emotions was exploding inside of her. "UHG!" She grabbed the shopping bag from Aang's hand and made her way out of the antique fair.

Katara wasn't making sense to herself either. Yes, she was mad at Sokka and Aang because they were being so protective of her. But it wasn't just that. At least, at the moment, she was the maddest at Aang for being right: The bag with the candlestick really was too heavy.

She groaned in annoyance and walked away from the shopping stand, making her way to the car.

As it turned out, Katara had forgotten that it was Sokka who had given her a ride to the park, so she couldn't just take the car and leave.

She sat down on a park bench, facing a playground, and looked at the children playing there with a pouty expression on her face. She felt so silly and embarrassed for throwing such a tantrum in the middle of the fair. And even more that she couldn't make a dramatic exit.

To sum up, she was confused about everything. She was scared of pregnancy and motherhood. She was mad at the spirits for twisting her life upside down, and she was mad at her own body for being constantly nauseous. And every time her friends mentioned the baby, she felt triggered, because it reminded her of all that inner turmoil. Katara wished she could simply forget about it for a moment.

She groaned and hid her face in her hands.

Why was she having such a bad time accepting it? Well, she understood she was pregnant, that there was a life growing inside of her. She knew it. But Katara didn't feel that intense joy most women experienced when finding out they were pregnant. In the past, when she thought of her future as a teenager, she usually imagined she would finish college, become a nurse, get married and then try for a baby. A child she planned, and that came at the right time and right place.

Although she had always been a bit emotional, she felt like she was being taken away by a hurricane of feelings that were out of control. She also hated feeling out of control, and that was stressing her out.

Katara felt someone sit beside her on the bench and looked up. Aang gazed at her with a worried look in his eyes.

"Are you okay?" She didn't answer. He put a strand of her long brown hair behind her ear.

Tears started prickling in her eyes again, much to her annoyance. Katara hid her face on his chest, as he pulled her in for a hug, and Aang brushed his hands through her hair. On his shoulder, she cried quietly for a couple of minutes, while he held her close and pressed kisses on the crown of her head.

When she felt her tears stop falling, she leaned back and dried her eyes. Aang looked at her with sad, confused eyes. Katara avoided looking him in the eye and ran her hands through his sweater, now wet from the tears, smoothing it out.

"Sweetie, what's wrong?" He asked her, holding her face fondly.

"I just... Ugh, never mind." She shrugged, wiping her face.

"Come on, you can tell me." His voice, low and comforting.

"I-I... I'm confused. And angry, and scared and..." Katara took a long breath and looked down. "Last month, it just felt like a fever dream. We bought those baby books to prepare ourselves, we talked about it but... It still didn't feel real. It hadn't really sunk in that I would have a baby. A child."

She felt more tears come to her eyes. Spirits, why was she crying so much?

"A-And now... It's starting to get so real. It's what everyone is talking about. I'm being bombarded with Suki's Pinterest boards for baby rooms twenty-four seven. And Sokka... He's calling every two hours to check in on me! It's so overwhelming!" She exclaimed and buried her face in Aang's shoulder again.

He looked down and stayed silent for a moment. Then, he continued, with a chuckle.

"I guess I'm also doing that too, right?" He said and kissed her head again. "I'm so sorry."

Katara kissed his shoulder and held his hand.

"It 's fine."

"No, it's not. I'll try to be less obsessive over it too, promise." Aang continued. "I just wanted to keep you and our baby safe, but I did go too far."

"I forgive you, Sweetie." Her face was still buried on his shoulder, and they sat there for a couple more minutes.

The kids ran through the playground, shouting and having fun, in the swings and sliders. As they watched the people of the Middle Ring have their fun in the park, the sun was setting, leaving beautiful pink and orange tones in the sky. When it was already getting dark, they walked back to the antique fair, to meet with the rest of the group, holding each other.

"Oh, there's another thing I needed to tell you, Aang." Katara remembered, with her arm on his waist.

"Sure, what is it?" He asked, seeing a grin form on her face.

"There is absolutely no way I'm letting you name our child Laghima."